The Pledge of Allegiance was written in August 1892 by the socialist minister Francis Bellamy (1855-1931).  It was originally published in The Youth's Companion on September 8, 1892.  In its original form it read:  "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."  In 1923, the words, "the Flag of the United States of America" were added.  At this time it read:  "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."  In 1954, in response to the Communist threat of the times, President Eisenhower encouraged Congress to add the words "under God," creating the 31-word pledge we say today.  Bellamy's daughter objected to this alteration. 

http://www.ushistory.org/documents/pledge.htm  See also How the Pledge of Allegiance Went From PR Gimmick to Patriotic Vow by Amy Crawford at http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/pledge-allegiance-pr-gimmick-patriotic-vow-180956332/  NOTE that Francis Bellamy was the cousin of American author Edward Bellamy

The history of the city of Cremona, Italy on the Po River, just over an hour south of Milan by train, is inexorably intertwined with violins and other stringed instruments.  More than 140 liutaio currently ply their trade in the city.  Wandering the narrow streets around the Piazza del Comune, you can watch dozens of violinmakers at their workbenches through their storefront windows.  If they’re not busy or if they’re in the right mood, some of them may wave you inside to have a look.  “This is an antique job.  Nothing has changed for centuries,” the violinmaker Philippe Devanneaux, who came to Cremona from Paris 34 years ago, told me during a recent visit.  “Of course, you can make a violin with a machine or a computer, but you can’t put your heart inside of it.”  “The secret of the Cremona violin is the weight,” said Giovanni Colonna, violinmaker and lutherie director at the Academia Cremonensis. “It’s light, but not too light.”  And then there’s the food. Mario Batali also wrote that a visit to Cremona is “absolutely essential to the gastrovoyager.”  Cremona’s location at the border of Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna brings influences from both:  charcuterie like cotecchino and salame; grana padana cheese; stuffed pastas specialties like marubini and tortelli di zucca; and the famed Mostarda di Cremona, a sweet and gently spiced fruit preserve, served with the classic stew called bollito misto.  But perhaps the crowning food achievement of Cremona is its perfection of the tramezzini sandwich, spongy, perfectly triangled white bread stuffed with myriad varieties of ham, tuna, eggs and artichokes and slathered with mayonnaise.  They are always served with the question, “Mangia subito?”—to which the answer can only be, “Yes, I am eating this immediately.”  Ugo Grill, which closely guards the recipe for its mayonnaise, has served the tramezzini gold standard for decades.  Places to visit:  Museo del Violino, Piazza Marconi; 39-0372-080-809; museodelviolino.org/en.  Museo Civico “Ala Ponzone,” Via Ugolani Dati 4; 39-0372-407-269;musei.comune.cremona.it. The city museum boasts a priceless collection of stringed instruments.  Academia Cremonensis, Via Platina 66; 39-0372-808-970; academiacremonensis.it/en. This professional violin and bow-making school is open to small groups by appointment.  Casa Stradivari, Corso Garibaldi 57; 39-0347-597-6856; stradivariazioni.com.  The former home of young Stradivarius is run by an association of violin-makers who often put on exhibitions.  Jason Wilson  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/06/travel/italy-cremona-violin.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

TOASTS  Here's to bread--it makes the best toast.  Here's to bread, because without bread we wouldn't have toast.

QUOTES from Woman Strangled--News at Ten, a novel by Laurie Moore  "Bad cop!  No donut!"  "He wasn't jaywalking.  He lost his balance."

Nestled in the rolling hills of Southeast Missouri and minutes off I-55, the Kage School was originally built in 1880 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.  In 2015, the Historic Kage Guest Cottage was brought back to life as a beautiful, richly decorated guest cottage.  Although re-purposed as a guest cottage, The Cottage retains the charm and character of the original school building with 13 foot ceilings, the original school lights and original Missouri Ozark pine hardwood floors, as well as many other artifacts and original materials recovered from the building during restoration.  The initials and dates of many Kage School students can still be seen scratched into the soft brick on the exterior of the building.  The small stone wall comprising the border at the front of the building is constructed of the stone footings originally used in the 1880 construction of the school.  http://www.vrbo.com/717740  NOTE that the school was established in 1854 according to the plaque.  See a video with before and after pictures at http://www.hetzelproperties.net/historic-kage-school-guest-cottage  2:52

Conservation tests reveal details of 1917 ceiling in Oberlin College's art museum   Next time you are in the Allen Art Museum, take a look up while standing in the King Sculpture Court.  The restoration of artworks often takes place out of public view.  In the future, however, museum visitors will have an opportunity to witness the transformation of the King Sculpture Court ceiling, an integral part of Cass Gilbert’s vision for the museum’s original 1917 building.  During a two-week period, conservators cleaned a test area of the ceiling, clerestory wall, and architectural moldings, lifting decades of accumulated grime.  Vibrant details are now visible in the paintings forming four of the ceiling’s 100 square coffers.  “As you clean these, the details come out.  The animals actually have shadows, and you see touches of blue and orange in the duck,” noted Andrea Chevalier, senior painting conservator with the Intermuseum Conservation Association.  http://amamblog.tumblr.com/post/61429756608/conservation-tests-reveal-details-of-1917-ceiling  As part of the original design for the 1917 building, architect Cass Gilbert hired painter Frederick J. Wiley to decorate the upper walls and ceiling of the museum’s grand central space, later named for the museum’s first curator, Hazel B. King.  The faux-coffered ceiling is enlivened with animal and foliage designs in emulation of a 16th-century French style, while the upper walls feature verses written by the American transcendentalist Christopher Pearse Cranch (1813-92). http://oberlin.edu/amam/HistoricRenovation.htm  

See pictures at  http://www.cleveland.com/architecture/index.ssf/2015/02/ceiling_restoration_polishes_o.html

On January 12, 1814, a 33-year-old architect named Robert Mills mailed off a “book of designs” to the Board of Managers of the Washington Monument in Baltimore.  Accompanying the dozen drawings and pages of notes describing his design, Mills included a letter making the case for his particular qualifications as an American architect:  Four years earlier on January 6, 1810, Maryland  had  authorized the “Board of Managers of the Washington and Monument in Baltimore” to raise funds by lottery to support the design and construction of a monument to George Washington.  Delayed by the war and difficulties in raising money, the members of the board voted on February 15, 1813 to hold a design competition with a prize of $500 for the “best design, model or plan for a Monument to the memory of General Washington.”  Robert Mills submitted a detailed description of his proposal back in November along with a few rough sketches.  When the board extended competition deadline  from January 1 to April 15, it gave him more time to prepare the illustrations contained in his “book of designs,” an essay with a description of the drawings and “a few remarks upon Monuments in general,” and the letter excerpted above.  http://1814.baltimoreheritage.org/architect-robert-mills-submits-a-book-of-designs-for-baltimores-washington-monument/  Intended to be located in today’s Monument Square on Calvert Street in Baltimore, when nearby residents saw Mills’ winning design, they feared the tall column might topple on their houses in the event of a natural disaster.  With these concerns, a new location was found north of the city on a 200 square foot plot of land donated by Revolutionary War hero John Eager Howard from his vast “Belvidere” estate.  The area surrounding the monument’s site was untamed, and was generally known as “Howard’s Woods.”  With its cornerstone laid on July 4, 1815, the monument became the first public monument to honor Washington.  By this time Mills’ elaborate tiered design had been modified, largely to the simple column on square base we have today.  The project was funded by a state-enabled lottery, as were many semi-public projects at this time.  http://mvpconservancy.org/history/   Baltimore celebrated the rededication of its most recognizable landmark, the Washington Monument on July 4th, 2015.  The nation's first monument to George Washington was closed to visitors in 2010, when it was deemed structurally unsound.  http://www.mdhs.org/underbelly/2015/07/02/designing-the-washington-monument/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1364  October 16, 2015  On this date in 1909, William Howard Taft and Porfirio Díaz held a summit, a first between a U.S. and a Mexican president, and they only narrowly escaped assassination.  On this date in 1916, in Brooklyn, New York, Margaret Sanger opened the first family planning clinic in the United States.  On this date in 1923, The Walt Disney Company was founded by Walt Disney and his brother, Roy Disney.